NEW FLYING INSTRUCTOR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 28 June 1937, Page 8

NEW FLYING INSTRUCTOR.

MIDDLE DISTRICTS CLUB. Flying-Officer F. L. Truman, of the New Zealand Air Force, Wigram, has been appointed pilot instructor to the Middle Districts Aero Club, Palmerston North, and will take up bis duties at Milson Aerodrome during the present week.

Flying-Officer Truman, who was born in Otago, has had ten years’ flying experience, five years of which were with the Royal Air Force and included service in Egypt, various parts of India, and the Nurth-AVest Frontier as far as Baluchistan, and Persia, and also in England. Mr Truman had the unique experience of being stationed at Quetta, the capital of British Baluchistan, during the severe earthquake of 1932. In referring to this disastrous occasion, Mr Truman mentions that one of the severe shocks occurred on a night when his squadron was night flying, and when flying over the town the street lights were suddenly seen to writhe like a snake. Landing on the aerodrome his ’plane began to rock violently, and the wing tips touched the ground on either side duo to the severity of the shake. Mr Truman’s commission with tho Royal Air Force terminated in 1932, and he later returned to New Zealand and received a commission in the New 'onland Air Force as a flying instructor. This position lie is now relingnishing to join the Middle Districts Aero Club, and will commence training at Palmerston North on Saturday next.